# Would you'd rather be a telepath or a precog? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 27, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697 "2010-06-27T18:38:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/21 "2010-06-28T11:15:39Z")
Telepathy sounds a lot more flexible and generally useful, while still achieving the same main goals (money, power). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/22 "2010-06-28T12:08:29Z")
I choose time travel. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/23 "2010-06-28T13:57:18Z")
Nah, you’d always be confused as to what time it is. And if you don’t speak ancient languages and have a ready stock of ancient money and clothing, you’re pretty much boned. People don’t speak modern English in Ancient Babylon - you’d just be another poor and possibly dangerous barbarian who needs to be killed or enslaved for the common good. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/24 "2010-06-28T14:03:16Z")
You can make just as much money via telepathy as you can via precog, and it doesn’t come with those pesky visions of future crises. Also, I can turn it off and can focus on particular thoughts as well as I can focus on a particular conversation in a crowd? Hell yes, I am all over that. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/25 "2010-06-28T14:16:49Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Nah, you’d always be confused as to what time it is. > > And if you don’t speak ancient languages and have a ready stock of ancient money and clothing, you’re pretty much boned. People don’t speak modern English in Ancient Babylon - you’d just be another poor and possibly dangerous barbarian who needs to be killed or enslaved for the common good. I wasn’t planning on going to ancient Babylon. Just jump around within the range of thirty or so years to bugger about in a Marty McFly way. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/26 "2010-06-28T14:43:56Z")
I voted telepathy, even though this version is particularly watered-down from the traditional comic-style telepath (can’t go through walls? no mental attack powers whatsoever?) compared to the precog. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/27 "2010-06-28T14:52:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I voted telepathy, even though this version is particularly watered-down from the traditional comic-style telepath (can’t go through walls? no mental attack powers whatsoever?) compared to the precog. Why do you want mental attack powers? Anyway, I specified the no-mindreading-thru-walls bit, along with the can-turn-off-completely bit, so the telepathy wouldn’t be more trouble than it was worth. ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/28 "2010-06-28T15:12:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > If you choose the telepathy option, you get mostly receptive abilities. You can basically hear the thoughts of persons within, oh, let’s say 100 feet of you, so long as there is no physical barrier–a wall, say–between the two of you. You can turn the ability on and off like a faucet. When the power is on, you’ll be able to hear the thoughts of all the people in range, so if you’re in a crowd you must focus your attention on the person you’re mentally eavesdropping on. You cannot probe a person’s memories. To broadcast your thoughts to another person, you have to have touched them, skin to skin, for a few seconds beforehand; once you’ve done so, the two of you can communicate psychically for an hour, or until one of you severs the link by an act of will, whichever comes first. Quick question, when you say “broadcast thoughts” does that mean your voice only or can images, smells, tastes, physical sensations also be broadcast?(I guess I’m asking if you can push images so real that the recipient basically hallucinates.) Also the recipient automatically know what’s happening? (I mean seriously you could do some major mischief by simply shaking the hand of some schmuck and then having him think spirits are talking to him for the next hour.) ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/29 "2010-06-28T17:29:26Z")
I would much rather be a precog than a telepath. I don’t _want_ to know what other people are thinking. It freaks me out enough already to think about, for example, how much time that human males apparently think about sex. I don’t really want to have a front-row seat to every guy in the vicinity fantasizing about what he’d like to do to/with the cute 7-11 clerk. This is true even if I can turn it off–if I turn it off most of the time, what’s the point of having it? That’s facetious, I know, but essentially true. I’d rather try to figure out what my friends are thinking the old-fashioned way. Precognition, however, could be interesting, and not just because of lottery numbers. I mean, you really can only do that once for a big jackpot or maybe a handful of times for smaller ones before people start getting suspicious. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/30 "2010-06-28T17:53:16Z")
> [@notsoheavyd3](#): > > Quick question, when you say “broadcast thoughts” does that mean your voice only or can images, smells, tastes, physical sensations also be broadcast?(I guess I’m asking if you can push images so real that the recipient basically hallucinates.) Also the recipient automatically know what’s happening? (I mean seriously you could do some major mischief by simply shaking the hand of some schmuck and then having him think spirits are talking to him for the next hour.) Re-reading the OP, I see that I wrote that either party can cut off the telepathy at will, so I don’t think that’d work. Anyway, what I had in mind was a telepathic conversation. Charlie Xavier lite, like I said. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/31 "2010-06-28T21:46:10Z")
Telepathy can be replicated with truly honest conversation and/or cell phones. And people are entitled to their privacy; I’m sure the people here who voted for telepathy wouldn’t steal someone’s diary, would they? If somebody really wants me to know what they think, they can tell me; anything else, I’m probably better off not knowing. Not to mention, reading someone’s mind without their consent creeps uncomfortably close to something like rape for me. Prognostication it is! Plus, with all my lovely lovely lottery winnings, I can potentially do something about heading off the terrible potential things I see. I get crazy dreams most nights anyway; at least if they were true dreams, I’d have the comfort of knowing I could do something to stop them. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/32 "2010-06-28T22:10:54Z")
I went with precog, I don’t have to lock myself into more than a couple of minute of future time to amass a fortune nobody can steal from me, I can play super hero with the dreams (or not), and I doubt I’ll be lacking for company without having to use powers on people. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/33 "2010-06-28T22:30:25Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Telepathy can be replicated with truly honest conversation and/or cell phones. And people are entitled to their privacy; I’m sure the people here who voted for telepathy wouldn’t steal someone’s diary, would they? If somebody really wants me to know what they think, they can tell me; anything else, I’m probably better off not knowing. Not to mention, reading someone’s mind without their consent creeps uncomfortably close to something like rape for me. I don’t think you need the words _something like_ in that last sentence. > [@](#): > > Prognostication it is! Plus, with all my lovely lovely lottery winnings, I can potentially do something about heading off the terrible potential things I see. I get crazy dreams most nights anyway; at least if they were true dreams, I’d have the comfort of knowing I could do something to stop them. Besides, for all you know, some of your crazy dreams ARE prophetic, and you are selfishly doing nothing about them. 🙂 But not the dream about that guy from Memphis tracking down the Beastie Boys and feeding them to hyenas. That’s just your paranoia talking. You shouldn’t concern yourself with it all all. ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/34 "2010-06-28T23:09:13Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Re-reading the OP, I see that I wrote that either party can cut off the telepathy at will, so I don’t think that’d work. Anyway, what I had in mind was a telepathic conversation. Charlie Xavier lite, like I said. Right, I read the part about they can cut it off at will. However what I’m curious is going into it does the recipient know he can cut it off or would he be stuck in a situation where you could push your voice on him or her and he wouldn’t realize he could cut the conversation and therefore doesn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/35 "2010-06-28T23:39:29Z")
Definitely neither. I think having either one would make life less fun, like playing a game with cheat codes. Plus, with telepathy I’d have hard evidence that everyone is indeed thinking what an a-hole I am. That would be depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/36 "2010-06-28T23:51:04Z")
I choose precog. My moral standards when it comes to privacy would severely limit what I could do with telepathy; whereas I have no moral problems with foreseeing the future. I’m also not very curious about what other people are thinking. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Why do you want mental attack powers? To kill without leaving any evidence behind, even if you and your victim are in front of security cameras and a dozen witnesses. “He just fell over and died”, or “Looks like he just lost control of the car.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/37 "2010-06-28T23:54:29Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I choose precog. My moral standards when it comes to privacy would severely limit what I could do with telepathy; whereas I have no moral problems with foreseeing the future. I’m also not very curious about what other people are thinking. > > To kill without leaving any evidence behind, even if you and your victim are in front of security cameras and a dozen witnesses. “He just fell over and died”, or “Looks like he just lost control of the car.” I was specifically asking why **MrDibble** would want them. He’s a pacifist, I think. Evil applications of telepathy come to me without prompting; that’s what _Rhymer_ means. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/38 "2010-06-29T00:51:26Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > I would absolutely never want telepathy. I believe that it would be nearly impossible to maintain friendships. People think petty, nasty things all the time. We all do. I don’t want to know those things. That is why upstream I explained I wanted to be able to preserve my image of my friends. I would rather have a body of friends, and a monthly nightmare than no friends … why would anybody need to be telepathic? I could be solitary and one hell of a card player? Honestly, I really do not see a good use for telepathy. At least with the precog I could use it to win the uber powerball and have all the money I would ever need. ---
**Author:** ![sormanic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@sormanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sormanic)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/39 "2010-06-29T02:38:33Z")
I have no need to become Cassandra, but could use a little more understanding of what people are thinking around me. It might even make me a better teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697/40 "2010-06-29T07:31:18Z")
Telepathy, because I’m nosy. The prophetic dreams mean that I wouldn’t take precognition if you paid me. I’d feel a moral obligation to intervene, but I’m a mild-mannered teenage girl who stands five feet tall and couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag. What the hell could _I_ do about preventing violent crime? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-youd-rather-be-a-telepath-or-a-precog/544697.md?page=3)